Bicycle speed/resistance attachment

ABSTRACT

An exercise assembly useful in training a bicyclist for increased speed includes a pair of elastic straps adjustable in their length to stretch between the rear axle of the bicycle and the bicyclist&#39;s respective thighs. The strap attachment to the thighs is effected by a corresponding pair of adjustable elastic hoops that are limited in their elastic expansion by fabric strips attached to each of the hoops at loosely spaced intervals. When not in use the straps can be attached to the bicycle frame.

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application obtains the benefit of the earlier filing date of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/462,142 filed on Jan. 28, 2011.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an attachment arrangement extending a pair of elastic bands or tethers each stretched from a respective thigh of a bicyclist to a pair of laterally spaced points on the bicycle for providing resistance to the forward movement of the bicyclist's legs.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,931, issued Mar. 30, 1993, I have described an exercise apparatus in which a rolling frame is trailed behind a user to fix the ends of a set of elastomeric bands, or straps, that at their other ends each respectively attach to the arms and legs of the user to elastically restrain the forward motion of each of these limbs while running. Thereafter I described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,652,427, issued to me on Nov. 25, 2003, an improved form of the foregoing elastomeric restraint arrangement in which the elastic band is branched to the legs from a single elastic strap extending rearward to an attachment at the end of a treadmill, with the single elastic strap delayed in its motion by the lagging motion of a fabric panel to align the strap out of the way of the user's other leg, an improvement that was then carried over for use on a track by way of a roller supported trailing frame described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,998,030 that was issued to me on Aug. 16, 2011.

Each of the foregoing stem from my observation, and also the observations of many others, that any neuromuscular movement sequence of a human body follows very predictable, coordinated patterns dictated by the anatomical disposition of the muscle groups involved in the movement, their skeletal attachments, their various elastic coefficients, mass distribution, moments of inertia, and so on, as it is these interrelationships that were earlier honed by evolution to make us the highly efficient, bipedal species that we are. Of course, improvement by training of such coordinated muscle groups is best achieved by their natural repetition while their main muscle group effort is enhanced. In this manner the muscle group involved in the running movement, for example, is best trained while running with the main thigh muscles loaded by an elastic restraint to a higher effort to extend the distance of the runner's gait, as in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 7,998,030, with the remainder of the muscle complement then following suit.

In the past such elastic restraints were typically deployed between one and another part of the user's body, as for example, the resistance arrangement disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,280,365 to Weber et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,314,437 to Frappier; U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,583 to Smith; and many others, or the restraint is fixed to a stationary object, as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,845 to Macri et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 7,087,001 to Thli; and others. While suitable for the purposes intended, each of the foregoing limits the extent of its use by its very nature and their application is wholly inapposite to train the wholly unconstrained movement of running, or particularly bicycling, movement that is characterized by well coordinated muscle groupings that achieve a self-reinforcing gait or cyclic pattern from their common coefficients of restitution resulting from coordinated and matching mass-elastic coefficients and dynamic responses of the whole muscle group.

An elastic restraint arrangement useful in developing and strengthening the coordinated movements that complement the operation of a matched carriage like a bicycle are therefore extensively desired and it is one such arrangement that is disclosed herein.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is the general purpose and object of the present invention to provide a set of elastic restraint straps adjustable to stretch between the rear frame portion of a bicycle to the thighs of the mounted bicyclist to provide resistive forces to the upward and forward movement of the bicyclist's legs.

Yet other and further objects of the present invention shall become apparent upon the examination of the description that follows in conjunction with the illustrations appended.

Briefly, these and other objects are accomplished within the present invention by releasably mounting onto each of the free ends of the rear axle shaft of a bicycle an attachment fixture attached to one end of a corresponding elastic strap which at its other end is looped through the base of a spring loaded swivel clip and returned in a length adjusting loop by way of a clasp or cam buckle like those sold under the style or model designations 40880-22; 42195-11; or 40880-15 by Ancra International, LLC, Hawthorne, Calif., selectively grasping the strap portion extending therethrough. The swivel clip may then be selectively attached either to an attachment hook mounted on the bicycle frame, when not in use, or may be engaged to a D-ring sown into an elastic hoop that is cinched around the corresponding thigh of the bicyclist, thereby providing a resistive tension opposing the upward and forward part of the leg and pedal movement while assisting the pedaling effort over the return part of the pedal arc. In this manner the muscular stress level involved in the forward movement is enhanced while the effort of the muscle group of the return stroke is reduced.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that an organism developed in an evolutionary setting will flourish if its several components, as a group, maximize its energy consumption efficiency and a conservative running gait, as well as the cyclic pedaling of a well designed bicycle, that maximize rebound energy, otherwise referred to as maximizing its coefficient of restitution, will prevail. An exercise mechanism that imposes a biasing load by resisting the forward motion of the whole muscle group will inherently bias this efficiency towards a faster rate, a result that has been and continues to be heuristically supported. Thus the instant invention results in a bias towards faster movement down the track, providing a convenient mechanism for those training for competition.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective side view of a bicycle provided with the inventive elastic restraint assembly conformed for selective rearward restraint of the thighs of a bicyclist mounted thereon;

FIG. 2 is a perspective detail view, separated by parts, illustrating the manner of attachment of the inventive restraint assembly to the rear axle of the bicycle as shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is yet another perspective detail view illustrating a pair of hooks affixed in opposition to project laterally from the rear portion of the bicycle frame for providing an engagement for the free ends of the inventive restraint assembly when not in use, accommodating the use of the inventive assembly in the course of a self-training process; and

FIG. 4 is a perspective illustration of the inventive restraint assembly in its undeployed and unconnected form, depicting the use of a protective fabric sheath to cover the operative parts thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in FIGS. 1-4, the inventive restraint assembly, generally designated by the numeral 10, comprises a first and second elastic strap combination 11-1 and 11-2 each defined by an elastomeric strap 21 engaged at one end to a cam buckle 22 which, in a like manner to the cam buckles referred to above, is provided with a slot though which the same looped strap 21 is returned to pass underneath a spring loaded cam 22C after first passing through the eyelet 23E of a swivel clip 23. In this form the length of the strap loop separating the cam buckle 22 from the swivel clip 23 may be conveniently adjusted to select the strap dimension between the swivel clip 23 extending partially within a cloth sheath 26 affixed to the other end that of strap 21 that is also engaged to a hoop 24H on the periphery of a washer 24 conformed to receive one end of the rear axle shaft AX of a bicycle BC, to be retained in this engaged position by a spring circlip 25.

A pair of hoops 31-1 and 31-2 conformed to be cinched around the thighs of the using bicyclist UR, as he or she is mounted on bicycle BC, are again each defined by an elastomeric strap 31 respectively attached at their one ends to one of a further set of cam buckles 32 with the other ends of each of the straps then returned for capture within the same cam buckles 32 for convenient adjustment of their hoop dimension around the the user's thighs.

To obtain a secure, tightly fitting, engagement with the user's thighs each of the hoops 31-1 and 31-2 further includes corresponding fabric strips 33 sewn in spaced, convolved loops 33L to a substantial portion of the corresponding elastomeric strap 31, thereby limiting the range of its extension thereof to assure a tight fit throughout the various muscular movements. A D-ring 34 is then also sown onto each of the hoops 31-1 and 31-2 at one of these fastenings of strips 33 to provide a convenient attachment for the respective swivel clips 23 as each of the strap combinations 11-1 and 11-2 are stretched between the axle AX and the thighs of the user, with each strap 21 and its adjustment buckle 22 enclosed by a fabric sheath 27 to protect against chafing.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing dimensional hoop limit of each of the thigh engaging hoops 31-1 and 31-2 effectively confines their locations adjacent the knees by virtue of the typical dimensional taper of the thigh. At the same time the looped configuration of each of the resistance producing strap combinations 11-1 and 11-2 allows for a wide range of resistive tension originating from the rear wheel axle, thus conveniently allowing for a wide range of exercise levels with the tensioning vector consistently well defined by the bicycle geometry. From this well defined resistance generating framework a training program of increasing resistance levels can then be devised in order to increase the muscle group natural pedaling rate, thus increasing the competitive level.

An opposing set of retaining hooks 41-1 and 41-2 are each cantilevered outwardly from the bicycle frame BF to provide a convenient set of attachments of the swivel clips 23 once these are disengaged from the respective D-rings 34, stretching the straps 21 within their respective sheaths 27 while retaining their most recent tension settings determined by the cam buckles 22. Thus a minimal time increment is incurred in the training process to obtain a measured comparison of the most recent pedaling rate achieved, thereby enabling a well defined training regiment by which the natural pedaling rate is increased as result of preferential muscular development within the muscle array devoted to this effort.

All these foregoing advantages are conveniently achieved in an assembly that is simple to produce, easily attached to a bicycle structure and is well shielded by fabric sheaths to minimize any possible sources of inadvertent contact. This simplicity and inherent safety are particularly useful in a self-training program in which the commercially available bicycle speed sensing equipment can provide a measurement reference for the training's success.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the instant invention can be effected without departing from the spirit of the teachings herein. It is therefore intended that the scope of the invention be determined solely by the claims appended hereto. 

1. A tension producing assembly attachable to a bicycle provided with a frame having a rear end and conformed to support a bicyclist, comprising: a first and second elongate elastomeric tensioning member each conformed for releasable attachment of a one end thereof proximate said rear end of said frame; and a first and second engagement means conformed to receive the respective ones of the bicyclists thighs, each said engagement means including an attachment releasably connected to the respective other ends of said first and second tensioning members.
 2. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein: said first and second tensioning member are adjustable in length.
 3. An assembly according to claim 2, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each comprise an elastomeric strap provided with said one end and including a buckle at the other end thereof receiving a looped portion of said strap.
 4. An assembly according to claim 3, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each further include a fabric sheath attached to said one ends thereof and extending to enclose a portion of each said tensioning member.
 5. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein: said first and second engagement means each comprise an elastic strap and a convolved fabric strip attached in spaced increments to said elastic strap.
 6. An assembly according to claim 5, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each comprise an elastomeric strap provided with said one end and including a buckle at the other end thereof receiving a looped portion of said elastomeric strap.
 7. An assembly according to claim 6, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each further include a fabric sheath attached to said one ends thereof and extending to enclose a portion of each said tensioning member.
 8. A tension producing assembly attachable to a bicycle provided with a frame having a rear end and conformed to support a bicyclist, comprising: a first and second elongate elastomeric tensioning member each comprising an elastomeric strap provided with a one end and including a buckle at the other end thereof receiving a looped portion of said strap, said one end being conformed for releasable attachment of a one end thereof proximate said rear end of said frame; and a first and second engagement means conformed to receive the respective ones of the bicyclists thighs, each said engagement means including an attachment releasably connected to the respective other ends of said first and second tensioning members.
 9. An assembly according to claim 8, wherein: said first and second engagement means each comprise an elastic strap and a convolved fabric strip attached in spaced increments to said elastic strap.
 10. An assembly according to claim 9, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each further include a fabric sheath attached to said one ends thereof and extending to enclose a portion of each said tensioning member.
 11. A tension producing assembly attachable to a bicycle provided with a frame having a rear end and conformed to support a bicyclist, comprising: a first and second elongate elastomeric tensioning member each conformed for releasable attachment of a one end thereof proximate said rear end of said frame; and a first and second engagement means each comprising an elastic strap and a convolved fabric strip attached in spaced increments to said elastic strap conformed as a hoop for receiving the respective ones of the bicyclists thighs, each said engagement means further including an attachment releasably connected to the respective other ends of said first and second tensioning members.
 12. An assembly according to claim 11, wherein: said first and second tensioning member are adjustable in length.
 13. An assembly according to claim 12, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each comprise an elastomeric strap provided with said one end and including a buckle at the other end thereof receiving a looped portion of said strap.
 14. An assembly according to claim 13, wherein: said first and second tensioning members each further include a fabric sheath attached to said one ends thereof and extending to enclose a portion of each said tensioning member. 